A Los Angeles police officer who fatally shot a 14-year-old girl through the wall of a locker room at a Burlington Coat Factory store in North Hollywood was exonerated Tuesday by the California Department of Justice.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office said Officer William Jones used reasonable force during the 2021 incident because he was responding to a report of a possible active shooter.
This information turned out to be false: the suspect, Daniel Elena-Lopez, was carrying a bike lock, not a gun.
Footage released by Los Angeles police shows that when Jones arrived on the scene, armed with a high-powered rifle, he rushed past a phalanx of officers advancing toward the store’s housewares section, where he opened fire almost immediately after encountering Elena-López.
One of the bullets fired by Jones “jumped” a tile floor, according to the attorney general’s report, and sailed into a fitting room where Valentina Orellana-Peralta was hiding with her mother. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting sparked widespread outrage and grief, while demanding that the officer who killed her be criminally charged. The Orellana-Peralta family has a civil lawsuit pending against the city of Los Angeles, alleging that failures in training and oversight contributed to the deadly outcome. Attorneys handling the case did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The LAPD did not immediately respond to an inquiry into the matter.
While an internal LAPD review board was divided on whether Jones’ decision to open fire was justified, then-Chief Michel Moore ultimately ruled in 2022 that the gunshots fire violated department policy and that the officer should have taken more time to assess the situation. In a rare break with the chief, the police commission found that only Jones’ second and third shootings were against policy.
No LAPD officer has been charged in an on-duty shooting by county or state prosecutors in nearly two decades. Sub Dist. Atty. George Gascón, Los Angeles County prosecutors, however, have been more aggressive in filing complaints against law enforcement officers who use force in the line of duty, bringing charges of assault and manslaughter cases against Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and Torrance police officers in recent years.
The attorney general’s office noted that Jones heard reports that Elena-Lopez was threatening customers at the store with a gun. The information was later changed, but it is unclear whether Jones heard these later radio broadcasts, the office said. A toxicology report showed Elena-Lopez was using methamphetamine.
Orellana-Peralta was a passerby in the store. She had arrived from her native Chile about six months earlier, her family said, with dreams of becoming an engineer and an American citizen. According to her family’s lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court earlier this month, the girl’s mother “watched helplessly as her daughter died while she was still in her arms.”
The attorney general’s office said other officers at the scene formulated a plan to try to arrest Elena-Lopez by shooting her with a “less lethal” .40mm bullet, but Jones was unaware of their plan. Jones’ perception that he was shooting to stop an armed threat means he cannot be held criminally responsible for the stray bullet that killed the teen, based on a legal theory known as “transferred intent,” the office said.
The attorney general’s report called on the LAPD to improve its communication and coordination in emergency responses, but said it could not pursue charges against Jones because the killing of Orellana Peralta was “unintentional and unforeseeable” .
After reviewing the report, civil rights attorney Jim DeSimone, who has filed wrongful death lawsuits against law enforcement officers across the state, said the case highlights the need for police to have better “situational awareness” before opening fire.
“It is clear that with the number of officers and less lethal options, Mr. Lopez could have been apprehended without killing an innocent human being,” he said.
Times staff writer James Queally contributed to this report.
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